It Ran Away
by xXPokeFictionXx
Summary: Being forced to raise these eggs was stupid, but what was worse was how much everyone cared. When Max figures out that Nurf has hit Preston over the stupid egg they were supposed to raise, he takes matters into his own hands and steals it, leaving a note saying it ran away. He decides to hatch it. But Max isn't ready to be a parent.
1. Platypus Wrestling

**_Hey guys! I'm back with another fanfic in new fandom! And for those who haven't read any of my stuff before that's meaningless, but to anyone who has, it's great to see you back! Anyway, I got the idea for this one after thinking back to this episode and I was like, hey, wouldn't it be cool if Max actually did something about Preston's situation, because he clearly seemed to be the only person who knew what was going on? This isn't going to be, like, super angsty or anything (SPOILERS FROM FUTURE ME: Okay don't be so sure about that), rather it's just a fun idea I had and decided to write. I may write another chapter if you all like it! Anyway, enjoy!_**

Max groaned in annoyance as Mr. Campbell walked down the line of campers, handing an egg to each pair. He really didn't feel like doing this shit, it was a waste of his time. But nonetheless, this was how he was being forced to spend his Saturday.

He watched from a distance as each pair was handed their eggs, and as Mr. Campbell got further down the line he was able to hear what everyone thought more clearly.

"Uhg, this is stupid! I don't wanna take care of some _dumb egg_!" He heard Nurf say, Preston flinching away from the bully as he complained. He watched as Mr. Campbell carefully dropped an egg into Nurf's palm, watching as his whole demeanor immediately changed.

"My sweet boy." He murmured to the egg, immediately transfixed. Max scoffed.

"Alright kids, don't screw this up!" Mr. Campbell told them, before going off somewhere to do whatever the hell he does with his spare time. Which was probably something illegal.

"Well, this will be easy! Let's just leave it in a box and get back to enjoying our Saturday!" Max told his friend Nikki, the reason they had to do this dumb project in the first place. He couldn't be too mad at her though, now all the other campers would be busy and they could go get Neil and get back to enjoying their Saturday together, without risk of anyone interrupting this time!

"What?! We can't do that Max! This is _our_ egg!" Nikki exclaimed. Max was surprised for a moment, as she continued.

"We have to take care of it, and let it know we'll always be there for it no matter what!" She finished.

"Huh?""Yeah, I don't know what's going on in my lower parts, but it's making me want to nurture the _heck_ out of this thing! Lets go!" She exclaimed, walking away and expecting him to follow.

He sighed. This was going to be a long day.

…

"Boy Max, I don't know _how_ to nurture the heck out of this egg!" Nikki exclaimed, pushing the egg along in a stroller along the outskirts of the activity area. "Is loving it enough or do I have to feed it too?" Nikki asked.

"We could just send it to a summer camp and have strangers take care of it for three months." Max muttered sarcastically, absolutely done with her dumb questions. "Don't be silly, Max, That's an awful idea." She replied.

Max didn't know if she got the joke or if she was serious.

Nikki and Max stopped by the extreme sports camp, and watched as Dolf painted his egg. Once Dolf was done painting the bottom of it with flames, Ered put a pair of sunglasses onto it.

"Cool." She grinned. "Our egg is going to be the coolest artist slash pro skater who ever lived!" Dolf replied in his heavy german accent, grinning.

"Oh!" Nikki grinned, getting an idea. "We could be the cool parents like Ered and Dolf! If our egg hangs out with theirs, it can be popular!" She cheered.

"I don't think I need to remind you that these are eggs and not, in fact, actual children, but I'm going to anyway." Max deadpanned.

"Dolph, I am _loving_ the style of your egg! It's so _fierce!_ " Preston exclaimed enthusiastically. "Thank you, Preston!" Dolf grinned proudly.Nurf looked offended.

"Hey Preston." Preston turned to the bully. "How about you give some praise to Nurf Jr over here before you give him an inferiority complex? I will _not_ have our boy caught up in a cycle of hate and negative emotions, damn it!" He scolded.

" _Oh boy"_ , Max thought to himself, _"this is a recipe for disaster."_

"Nurf Jr? Who decided on that?" Preston asked, seemingly uspset.

" _THAT IS NOT PRAISE, PRESTON!"_ Nurf yelled, Preston flinching away at the outburst. Nurf took a deep breath to attempt to regain his composure. "Not in front of the child." He muttered, looking down to the egg strapped to his chest worriedly. He looked back to Preston, glaring.

"We will talk about this later." He told the frightened boy, walking away. Preston looked afraid and uncomfortable for a moment before following.

Ered's chattering to her egg and Neil's concern faded into the background, as Max stopped paying attention and followed Nikki away from the scene.

…

As Nikki continued being concerned over whether or not she was doing a good job raising her egg, Max glanced at Harrison's magic stage, where he was apparently putting on a show with his egg. Nikki noticed this, and dragged Max over with her, excited, despite his protesting.

Applause rang out as Harrison introduced his egg to the crowd. "Isn't this fun, Nurf?" Max heard Preston ask loudly, and glanced over to see what was happening.

"I work hard every day, and the one afternoon I have off you drag me to some stupid magic show?" Nurf sighed unhappily.

"Work? What do you mean?" Preston questioned. _"We're just campers!"_

" _Oh, so now you're DISRESPECTING ME?!"_

"No!" Preston cried out nervously. "I would never!"

"I cannot believe you right now. You know how I get when I'm angry." Nurf glared.

Max watched as Preston raised a hand to his cheek, hunching over a bit. "I remember." He murmured in response, subdued.

 _Okay, what the fuck?_

Before Max had more time to dwell on it, Nerris interrupted his thoughts, an accusatory tone calling out to Harrison.

Max watched as they argued, the end result being the death of another egg. Nikki looked pretty horrified, which honestly Max didn't really understand. Seriously, these were just some stupid eggs! Max decided he'd had enough of this bullshit. If he didn't talk to someone actually rational here, he'd fucking lose it.

So, he ditched Nikki and went to the one person he knew could understand. Neil.

But it was too late. Neil had gone crazy too.

"Hey, Neil." He greeted the boy, exhaustedly. "Boy, this whole egg thing sure is stupid, huh?"Instead of the affirmation he expected, Neil instead immediately got defensive over the egg he was holding.

Neil made an unintelligible offended nerd sound before holding the egg far away from Max. "I think that's close enough, Max."

Max hunched over a bit, upset that Neil didn't agree that this was pointless. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone ever including himself.

"Really? You too?" He sighed. "Why do you care so much about this?""I.. Don't know. I just- I see a lot of myself in this egg. It's so small and fragile.." He muttered, looking to the egg sadly. "I must protect it at all costs."

"Max!" Nikki called, walking over to him. "There you are!"

Max sighed in annoyance. Looks like it was back to this shit.

"It's your turn to change the egg's diaper! We should _not_ have started feeding it solids." She sighed.

"As you can see, I'm the only one who _hasn't_ lost their mind over this." Max tried, gesturing to Nikki.

"We're just trying to be the best parents we can be, Max. Everything's perfectly fine." Nikki replied casually.

" _YES, EVERYTHING'S PERFECTLY FINE, ISN'T IT?"_

Everyone turned to the source of the loud voice and gasped. Preston looked awful, with a big black eye that was poorly covered by a pair of sunglasses and a bruise on his cheek.

Max was starting to put two and two together.

"Jesus, Preston! What the fuck happened to you?" Max exclaimed, trying and only somewhat succeeding to hide his concern.

"Oh nothing, just.." Preston paused for a moment. "Tripped and fell into a doorknob a couple of times!" Preston exclaimed with false cheer.

And Max then knew that two and two equalled four, and Nurf was fucking abusing Preston. Over a stupid egg. Holy shit.

"It was my fault really!" He continued. "Anyway,-" He continued, voice cracking slightly, "-I was wondering if you had a cup of sugar I could borrow _please_?" He asked, taking a paper out from behind his back and holding it out in front of him desperately for the others to see, the words "HELP ME" scrawled across in capital letters.

 _Oh god._

"Preston!" Nurf called from a distance, storming over. Not missing a beat, Preston quickly shoved the paper into his mouth and swallowed it. "Yes Nurf, what is it?" Preston asked, clearly suppressing a shudder as he turned to the bully.

 _Holy fuck. This is not okay, this is not okay in any sense of the word._

Max felt absolutely sick to his stomach. Although Nurf was a bully, and thus everyone was already kind of used to being hurt by him if he didn't get his way, Preston was being forced to be partners with him for this project, and thus he was forced to be around him all the time. So of course if anything went wrong, he'd immediately be a target for Nurf. And that would go on until the egg hatched...

Which could take _weeks._

 _This can't continue. This can't fucking keep happening. Holy shit, this is so fucked up._

"Oh _there_ you are. What are you doing over here?" Nurf asked, suspicion dripping from his tone. "I think he was asking for help?" Nikki offered, and Max had never before wanted to punch her so badly.

" _What the fuck, Nikki?! Don't you see what's going on here-"_

" _Oh god. She doesn't. She doesn't see what's going on. I'm the only one here who can tell anything is wrong."_ Max's expression went from murderous to horrified in a matter of seconds as Nurf looked to the poor theatre boy with an absolutely enraged expression.

" _UH- HELP MAKING THAT CAKE YOU MENTIONED YOU LIKE FOR DESERT!"_ Preston jumped to explain to him, quickly thinking of an excuse. Nurf's expression turned surprised, and it seemed he had actually believed that.

 _Oh thank god, Preston wasn't going to get hit again. Everything was okay. He didn't have to worry anymo-_

Preston quickly turned back to them, continuing his request for help "baking a cake" like the true actor he was, doing his best to make the excuse convincing. "I just need some sugar, and then a few eggs-" Preston was cut off by an offended gasp.

 _FUCK._

"How could you even mention using eggs in front of Nurf Jr?!"Max then realized if he didn't think of something now, Preston was fucked. And as heartless as he seemed most of the time, he couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let this poor boy be abused by this emotionally fucked bully while he knows he could've done something about it. But the question was what?

"You know what?!" Nurf yelled out, before quickly taking off his makeshift baby carrier and hanging it on the branch of a tree behind him, leaving the egg out of his sight. Max realized that the egg was the cause of Preston being abused in the first place, and realized that he had to get rid of it. It was the only way to get this to stop. But how would he able to get rid of it without anyone knowing what happened?

Max then spotted Preston's notebook and a pen, dropped on the ground a few feet away and opened to a couple of pages of blank paper, with page torn out from the middle that Preston had used to write his cry for help with. And Max was going to answer that cry, damn it!

Because he had an idea, a crazy idea, that he hoped just might work. And everyone here might just be stupid enough to fall for it.

Quickly, he glanced around and noticed no one was paying attention to him, but instead to Preston and Nurf. Perfect. Max quickly dashed over to Preston's things, tore a page out of the boy's notebook and took Preston's pen, getting to work.

He tried to write down a note quickly, panicking as he heard the argument continue. "I am trying to set a good example for our egg, Preston! And I need you to work with me on this!" Nurf yelled, making Max panic even more. He struggled to balance writing as quickly as possible with making sure the note was legible. Finally, the note was complete.

Now was the tricky part. He had to replace the egg with the note without anyone noticing. Nurf was still yelling, and as awful as that was it was actually lucky for Max, because everyone was too focused on him to even pay attention to what Max was doing. Even Preston, who could likely see the tree behind Nurf from where he was standing, was too busy focusing on Nurf with terror-filled eyes to even notice Max.

And as depressing as that was, maybe that meant he could get away with this.

"I will not have him grow up in a _broken household_ like his father!" Nurf continued, as Max snuck up behind him and to the egg, taking it out of the makeshift baby carrier. "So if I hear anymore talk of, _"Im leaving you",_ Or, _"Oh! Your scaring me!"_ Or anything like that,"

Max began to panic. " _Oh fuck, I have the egg now, but where the hell am I going to hide it?!"_ Max's thoughts screamed to him.

Suddenly, he knew.

" _I am going to REALLY LOSE IT!"_ Nurf roared out, as Max carefully put the egg into the pocket of his hoodie. And damn, he was never more grateful for always wearing a hoodie than he was now. He then put the note where the egg was a moment ago, before dashing away from the tree and around to where the group was, trying to stay out of their peripheral vision.

He ran in a large semicircle until he was behind them. Once he was behind them and certain he wouldn't be noticed, he slowly moved back to his spot. No one noticed a thing. The years of sneaking around his house had really seemed to pay off.

Because Preston was saved. He only ended up needing to put up with a day of this torture, and although that was already too much, he probably wouldn't need to be Nurf's partner in an activity ever again after this. And he wouldn't need to put up with the weeks of bruises until the egg hatched.

Max didn't know why he risked getting beat up by Nurf himself to save Preston, but damn, he felt like he might actually be a good person now that he did.

"Nurf, I-"

"NO! Save it! We can talk about this later after I eat that cake." Nurf said, clearly trying to calm down the best he could. But Max knows that he would've only hit Preston later after saying that. He wouldn't now, though.

"In the meantime, I'm going to take Nurf Jr away, so he isn't exposed to any more domestic issues." Nurf told the theatre boy. Max immediately tensed up. Now, it was the moment of truth. He was going to see whether or not everyone fell for it.

Max watched as Nurf turned around before seeing the note in place of his egg. Nurf tensed up, visibly worried. "Wha..?""It's a note!" Nikki exclaimed, surprised. Good, if she was surprised, that meant he really had done the stealth part of his plan right. But now it was time to see if he'd done the note-writing part right. And Max couldn't help but be a bit nervous about that.

Max quickly realized he was supposed to be the rational one in this situation, and quickly made a confused noise, not able to manage much else as he tried to control his breathing so it wasn't obvious he was trying to catch his breath after making a mad dash from Preston's notebook and back.

"Dear parents," Nurf began to read aloud, "I could not take being raised in such conditions any longer and decided to run away to a better life. I hope you two can work things out, if not for me, than for each other. Love, Nurf Jr..?" Max couldn't help but suck in a breath nervously as Nurf began reading.

He had wrote that note specifically so that Nurf would be able to believe it, and in such a way that would hopefully also deter him from hurting Preston. Hell, he almost signed the note Preston Jr out of spite, but he knew that might cause Preston to be hurt and he didn't want that. He only hoped that it was believable enough.

"He.. ran away?" Nurf muttered, tears welling up in his eyes. "HE _RAN AWAY_?!" Max repeated, pretending to be absolutely baffled. On the inside though, he was setting off fireworks and screaming out words of triumph. Nurf believed it. His crazy plan to save Preston had _worked._

"Oh god! I'M A HORRIBLE PARENT!" Nurf cried, falling to his knees and bawling his eyes out.

For a moment, Max _almost_ felt bad. Because you know, Nurf didn't have an easy life either, and only way he knew to take out his anger was lashing out, so maybe it wasn't entirely his fault. It was _absolutely partially his fault_ and Max would never deny that, that _bastard_ should've _never_ hit Preston in the first place, but maybe it was _also_ Mr. Campbell's fault, for putting the pressure to raise these eggs on everyone in the first place, and putting Preston and Nurf in the situation they were in at all. Because yeah, Nurf was definitely a douche.

But so was Mr. Campbell.

"You really are, Nurf." Preston told him, sounding sympathetic, before placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Max knew that he would never be able to deny how amazing that was to him. Because despite the shit Nurf had managed to put Preston through today, Preston was still able to have a sense of empathy for the bully.

Max wouldn't admit how much he admired Preston for that. But he couldn't really deny it either.

"Our boy, our beautiful boy.." Nurf cried out as Preston walked him back to his tent. Max knew that there was nothing to worry about now, Nurf was too depressed to even try to lay a finger on Preston. He was safe.

And… Max had done that. He had saved him.

Max couldn't help but feel proud. He'd actually done it, he'd done something nice for once and answered Preston's cry for help.

"You see, Max! This is why we have to figure out the best way to raise our egg!" Nikki's voice snapped Max out of his thoughts. Because _holy shit, she wasn't even affected by that?!_ Did _anyone_ else care about what just happened?!

"And we better do it fast, because at this rate, our egg is going to be the only one left."

…

Before he knew it, Neil had broken his egg too. It was only Nikki's left. Well, technically it was also his, but whatever. And Preston's egg was still intact too, but no one else knew that.

"Kids, what the _heck_ are you doing out here?! My blood pressure is through the roof!" Cameron Douchebag Campbell himself asked, looking like a mess. "I have no idea what I'm doing, _that's the problem!_ " Nikki cried out in dismay. Max blinked in surprise.

"What?"

"Yeah, there's only one egg left." Max clarified, glaring hatefully at the man.

" _WHAT?!_ "

" _Well, that's what you get for leaving a bunch of stupid kids to raise fragile eggs and without any supervision, asshole."_ Max thought to himself. He suddenly wondered where David and Gwen had been throughout this.

" _It's all terrible!"_ Nikki wailed. _"I don't know what's right, I don't know what's wrong, all I know is that I'm scared and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"_

Max couldn't help but feel bad about Nikki panicking, so he did the only thing he know how to do. "Nikki! Calm down!" He exclaimed.

"It's like I told you, none of this matters! Nobody knows what they're doing when they're taking care of something too dumb to take care of itself! There's no right way of doing any of this. How do you think we turned out so fucked up?" Max ranted. Because the one thing he did best was being an asshole who secretly cared.

Because believe it or not, this was his way of trying to calm her down. But it only made him feel guiltier, because it was clearly not working. In fact, his ranting was doing the opposite of what was intended, Nikki was beginning to tear up!

Wow, _now_ Max felt like shit.

However, both Max and Nikki's thoughts were interrupted by a light cracking noise. Max stared down at the egg in shock. It was hatching already? "OH GOD! NOW IT'S BREAKING!" Nikki screamed.

"No, it's hatching!" Neil corrected.

Max, Nikki and Neil watched in awe, as a tiny, baby platypus broke out of the shell, making a tiny noise of triumph.

"Awwww…" The trio, even Max, cooed to Nikki and Max's platypus baby. Could it even be considered his as well though? He'd barely done anything for it, could it even be considered his own? He really owed Nikki an apology, he did nothing to help raise this egg, and even until the very end, he couldn't even calm her down properly. And for that, she deserved praise, for putting up with that and still managing to hatch the egg.

As Mr. Campbell expressed his relief that at least one baby was born, Max praised Nikki. "Wow… Nikki, thanks for getting us through this. You know, sometimes..." Max inhaled sharply,knowing what he was about to say was incredibly cheesy. He braced himself. "... Life really is beautiful."

Nikki gave him such a bright smile, that it made Max think, maybe, for just a moment, he could get used to being sappy. It wasn't such a bad feeling. After all, it made his friends happy, so maybe it wasn't so bad?

But then the stupid adult platypus ruined everything, and ate its young before Max's very eyes. Max's warmed heart once more went ice cold as the platypus ate her baby, eggshell it was never able to crawl out of and all, crawling up into Max and Nikki's hands where the egg used to be held between them moments ago.

"No it isn't." Neil sighed, matching Max's thoughts exactly.

"Well kids, that's why you always have a Plan B." Mr. Campbell smiled. "None of you saw me here. Dasvidaniya, campers!" Mr. Campbell called to everyone, making his escape in a russian submarine.

"... Fucking waste of a Saturday." Max sighed. He removed his hands from their previous position, causing the platypus to fall on its ass with an offended "Mwack!"

Max walked away nonchalantly, putting his hands in his pockets, pausing his movements when his hands brushed against the egg. Max quickly began to walk again, cursing quietly. Had Preston's baby platypus hatched too? The boy quickly made his way into the tent he shared with Neil, taking the egg out of his pocket carefully. He sighed in relief at what he saw; The platypus hadn't hatched yet, and the egg hadn't gotten damaged.

He guessed that his and Nikki's egg must of been the first one to be laid, otherwise another egg would've hatched sooner than theirs, or perhaps when one of the other eggs were broken a fully developed baby would be inside.

So if that was the case, Preston's would hatch at a day or so later at the very least, it'd probably take longer than that though.

Max paused a moment. How was he going to take care of the egg? He couldn't take part in all the camp activities after the weekends were over and take care of the egg at the same time. And what would he do when it hatched?

One issue at a time, Max decided, he'd worry about what to do when it hatched WHEN it hatched. For now, how was he going to take care of the egg? Clearly he couldn't do anything the other campers did, none of it worked well except Nikki's method, which would require not only his full attention but also for him to be batshit crazy. Hell, he was crazy for attempting to steal this egg in the first place, it could've ended horribly, was it even worth it?!(...yes.)Why was he even trying to take care of this egg? Why doesn't he just smash it onto the ground and walk away like nothing happened?No, no. He couldn't do that. He was pretty uncaring to most things, but killing an unborn baby platypus after what he just witnessed moments ago? He couldn't do that.

So what would he do…?Max thought for a moment before it hit him. He could do what all other creatures in the wilderness did. Make a nest! He couldn't, like, sit on it to keep it warm or whatever, but he could get it a soft, warm place to stay when he wasn't able to take care of it himself. When he knew he wouldn't be doing anything that could potentially get it cracked he could carry it around in his hoodie pocket to provide body heat! It was perfect!

But what could he make a nest with?

Max looked around the tent, before seeing some sciency shit in boxes on Neil's side of the tent. He took an empty box that Neil probably been saving for future sciencey shit and put it under his cot where it couldn't be seen. That could help make the nest look inconspicuous and be contained and possibly transported easily, Max decided, but it wasn't soft or warm enough on its own.

Max looked around a bit more, not seeing anything good enough lying around their tent. He sighed in frustration, flopping down on his cot angrily, though mindful of the delicate egg still in his hands. Almost wanting to laugh at how stupidly gentle he was being with this damn egg, he put it back in his hoodie pocket carefully for safekeeping…

Wait.

His hoodie!

Max grinned widely as he stood up and got out the spare hoodie of his that parents had sent to him a while ago. Looks like they were good for something after all. After he had thrown it away to the other side of the mess hall, it had ended up neatly folded up on his cot later. He suspected that was because of David. But it turns out it would have a use after all!

Because Max knew how warm, soft, and comforting his hoodies were firsthand.

He carefully lined the box under the bed with the hoodie, wrapping the egg up with it carefully. Perfect. Max sighed in relief, knowing that the egg would be safe there and went off to go back to his friends, but not before nervously adjusting his hoodie so that there was a bit of room for air to reach the egg, in case it hatched while he was gone, so it wouldn't suffocate.

He went back to Nikki and Neil, trying to act normal but unable to hide the spring in his step from being clever enough to think of the ideas that he'd thought of today. Saving Preston. Making a nest to take care of his egg properly. He couldn't help but be proud of all the good things he'd done today.

…

It turns out that Max's initial idea of leaving the egg in a box that he'd proposed as soon Nikki and him got it was actually best for it.

Whenever Max wasn't able to keep it near him, it was in the makeshift nest. Every few hours, Max would slip away from whatever camp activity everyone was being forced to do, and would nervously check on the egg. It hadn't hatched yet, but it wasn't damaged either. Until 8 days later.

Max sighed in relief as the camp activity finally ended. This one in particular had been really annoying; David had felt the need for a group bonding activity.

Max made his way back to his tent, wanting to check on the egg before going to the mess hall for dinner. He got down to his knees and carefully pulled the box out from under the cot, unwrapping what was once the egg.

Because it wasn't an egg anymore. In the egg's place was the creature that had been developing inside it for about a week. The baby platypus made a happy little noise as it was able to move more freely, freed from the small chamber it had been in before and able to see the world fully for the first time. It was lucky Max kept the habit of leaving space for air to get in when he wrapped up the egg.

Max gasped in awe. This one was even cuter than the last one,or maybe he had just grown attached to this one since he'd actually been the one to raise it. Either way, he couldn't help but feel a wave of pure joy looking at the baby, grinning widely. He'd caused this creature to be alive right now. He'd raised this animal, he'd saved Preston by, well, probably saving it too.

Because really, there were probably only two things that could've happened to it if he hadn't intervened. Either the egg would be broken like the others before it hatched, or it would hatch and Mr. Campbell would sell it to some crazy person. Because who in their right mind even want to buy a platypus?

So Max had saved it from that, he'd decided not to smash it, built it a safe place to stay so he couldn't accidentally break it during a camp activity, took care of it himself when he could, and carefully watched over it. And now here he was. He'd done it. He'd successfully hatched the egg.

But that left the one question. What now?

It was a living creature now, that he'd need to feed and give water, or maybe milk, wait, what did baby platypuses eat?! Or was it platypi? Was the plural platypuses or platypi?! Did it matter?!

Max took a deep breath to calm down. Its fine. It would be fine. He just had to steal either David or Gwen's phone and look it up. And they were probably in the mess hall with everyone else right now, so that would be easy!

He looked to the platypus contemplatively for a second before scooping it up and putting it in his pocket, taking it with him. He broke into the counselor's cabin, and looked around, seeing Gwen's phone charging. Bingo.

A few google searches later, Max found the depressing truth. There wasn't enough information that he could easily find about what baby platypuses eat, more specifically what you could feed an orphaned baby platypus, to give him any options. He didn't know what was safe to feed it and what wasn't.

Which meant the only reliable way to feed it was by letting its mother do it, and, well. Max wasn't sure that he could trust the mother.

This was awful.

Max tried his best to keep his composure as he carefully thought about what to do. Either he'd have to let the baby starve, abandon it somewhere so he didn't have to watch it die, kill it himself so it didn't have to suffer, try to feed it something that might not be safe for it, or try to get its mother to feed it and risk its mother eatingit herself.

After careful contemplation, there was only one rational option that Max could think of.

He'd need to hold down that fucking platypus mother.

No way in hell he'd let this baby die if there was a way to save it, as slim as it may be. He'd already grown way too attached. Which was kind of pathetic, really, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.

He couldn't let it starve, that'd be slow and painful and end tragically. He couldn't abandon it, the guilt would eat away at him and he'd never know what exactly happened to it, just that it'd probably died a painful death. He couldn't kill it himself, just the thought made him feel nauseous, so he already knew he'd probably never be able to do it himself. If he fed it something potentially unsafe, he'd most likely be directly responsible for it's death, which he'd be unable to get over.

So, the only option was to get some gloves and hope that the platypus canibal didn't kick him.

Well, actually, in his search he'd desperately looked through an interesting facts list, in which he's learned only the male platypuses are venomous. Still, better safe than sorry. Max swallowed nervously. He really hoped this would work, for the sake of the baby.

…

Somehow, it had worked. He'd wrestled with the platypus mother until it was pinned and guaranteed not to eat its child, and he'd waited until it fed the child instead. Each time it happened, the platypus mother gave up faster, as Max was somehow able to overpower it every time. It seemed to be starting to learn that there was no use fighting, and that he wouldn't go until the baby was fed.

But that didn't mean there were no drawbacks. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Firstly, it took too much time. The first time especially, as the mother platypus didn't know what Max wanted, and Max didn't know how to make the mother platypus do what he wanted. She was learning, luckily, but not fast enough for time to stop being an issue.

Second, everytime he fed the baby Max left with claw marks and bruises across his body, mostly his legs.

Third, he had to heavily rely on no one bothering him during the process.

And finally, he had to worry about protecting the baby from the gaping bill of its mother all the while.

And that was only feeding the baby.

And Max couldn't do it anymore.

He couldn't balance taking care of this child and hiding these new wounds on top of everything else at camp. He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't ready to be a parent to this platypus child.

But he couldn't let it die either.So he could only think of one thing he could do.

He carefully wrote a note containing everything someone needed to know to take care of the baby platypus, including how to wrestle its mother. He ignored the fact that a few tear droplets stained the page.

Since when had he gotten so soft?He got out the old cardboard box he'd used for the nest, and got a spare towel from the counselor's cabin to line it. It wasn't as comfortable as the hoodie he had used before, but whatever. He didn't want anything in the box to be identifiable.

He poked a few small holes through the top edges of the box just in case, and placed the baby and the note inside.

He'd only been able to care for it for another week after it had hatched. It only took a week for him to give up.

More tears welled up in his eyes as he gently pet the platypus child, bidding it farewell as he closed the box.

Max wrote across the top of the box. It read, "CAREFUL, FRAGILE.", And, in smaller text across the bottom, "Only open this once you're alone."

Max stayed still for a moment, before putting the box under his cot and waiting until the dead of night, when everyone was asleep. Once it was, he got the box from under his cot.

He quietly snuck out of the tent, box in hand, as Neil snored softly. He carefully approached one of the camps, and placed the box were he knew only the recipient would find it. They went there every day, so there was no way for them to miss it. Max stayed for a moment, crying for a bit longer.

He'd gotten so, so soft. Weak. He'd grown weak because of this poor baby. He hoped it stopped hurting this much one day. But this was for the best.

Max knew if he were to remain here any longer, he would change his mind and take the baby back to his tent and continue to try to take care of it. But he knew he couldn't handle it any longer. He'd been stressing over the platypus ever since it was still an egg, and he knew he wouldn't be able to handle the stress anymore.

Someone new needed to care for it. Someone who hadn't had to stress over it for weeks yet, who was able to start caring for it without already being exhausted.

Max needed someone determined, kind hearted, and strong to take care of the baby. Someone who would be kind enough to abandon the child, who'd be determined enough to try and learn everything they could about caring for it, and who would be strong enough to face the mother to feed it every day for 3 months until it can eat bugs and worms.

And Max knew that there was only one real choice. It was fitting, really, that they'd get the child. Max wouldn't want it any other way.

Max shot one last teary smile towards the box before walking back to his tent, trying his best to get his shit together.

Max reached his own tent, and layed in his cot, trying not to make much noise as he cried. Weak.

Neil made a soft noise as he turned towards Max's cot, unable to see Max's teary face in the dark.

"Dude? What're you doing up so late?" Neil murmured, only half awake. "Don't worry about it. I just had to take care of something." Max replied, trying his best to keep his voice steady.

He knew it'd be better this way. He'd done the right thing. He just hoped his stupid heart would realize that soon.

…

Preston hummed as he walked to the theatre camp, going backstage to where his typewriter was, so that he could write another play. The last one hadn't gone that well, and he really wanted to improve! He had to wow everyone!

He stopped in front of his desk, before noticing a box sitting on his chair, with the words "CAREFUL, FRAGILE", And, "Only open this once you're alone." Scrawled across the top in hasty handwriting. Preston gasped. A gift, perhaps? From who?Preston eagerly opened it, and saw something loosely wrapped in a towel with a note laying on top of it. _A love letter perhaps?!_ Preston took the note and began reading eagerly.

 _Dear Preston,_

 _I'm just going to get right to the point. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we had to raise those eggs? I'm sure you remember how yours "ran away". But that was a lie. I stole it._

 _Don't tear up this note in a fit of rage, please, hear me out._

 _I knew what Nurf had done to you, and that the egg could take weeks to hatch, and I didn't want you to have to endure that, so I took the egg so that you didn't need to be his partner for the activity anymore. I'm sorry that happened in the first place, by the way, it shouldn't have. I'm so sorry that you got hurt. Truth is, I care more about everyone here than I'd like to admit._

 _But the point is, I took the egg and left that note, and raised it myself. I knew better than to treat it like a human child, luckily, and just made it a nest to hatch in. It worked, and the egg hatched. I tried to find out what platypuses ate so I could take care of it, but the only thing I knew it could safely eat at this age was its mother's milk. But you saw the mother eat Nikki's platypus baby, I'm sure. I had to pin the mother down so it couldn't eat yours. And I waited for the mother to feed it. Luckily, that worked, if it didn't I didn't really have a Plan B._

 _Just so you know, platypuses feed their young like any almost any other mammal, except the milk leaks from their pores and into special indent in their abdomen so that the baby can lap it up, don't question why I know this. So you'd need to pin it on its back to get it to feed its baby, just so that's clear._

 _She started learning that when I pin her and put the baby on her stomach (away from her mouth of course) that she needs to feed it if she wants to be free. But it's too exhausting for me to handle, doing that every time the baby gets hungry._

 _Preston, I can't take care of the baby anymore. But I know you can. I trust you not to abandon it, and I know you aren't scared of some stupid platypus mother and what might happen if it kicks you. Which is nothing, by the way. Only male platypuses are venomous when they kick you. Plus, you were its first parent. It's only right for me to give it to you._

 _Please make sure it's warm and has enough air, you can probably even keep it in the box it came to you in! Be careful with it, it's barely a week old, and if anyone finds it and asks were you found it, just say that you found an egg that Campbell missed or something. DON'T let them know it's your first one. I don't want Nurf hurting you again._

 _I really hope this is enough information for you to be able to take care of it, but if it isn't, you could always try to ask David, he know tons of random things about nature, or just steal a phone. Good luck, Preston. Don't try to find me, I did my best to make this letter as detached from who I am as a person as possible._

 _-Love, A Person Too Weak To Be A Parent_

By the end of the letter, Preston was trembling, noticing a few dried tear stains on the page and adding a few of his own to it. He carefully moved the top of the towel away from the loosely wrapped bundle, and wasn't too surprised at what he saw.

A sleeping, baby platypus. Nurf Jr.

But, well, Preston had never really agreed to that name at all. Maybe he could call it something else now.

 ** _AND THAT'S THE END! Holy shit, I worked really hard on this! I actually had to do a bit of research for this, and I decided that platypus wrestling was probably the only way Max could feed the baby. If anyone liked this, feel free to leave a review! I may or may not add another chapter if it's requested, but I don't know for sure, so I'm going to mark it as complete for now. I hoped you all enjoyed!_**


	2. The Investigation

_**Okay, I honestly THOUGHT this was going to be a oneshot, honestly I did, but… I couldn't leave it like this! I have a potential plot planned out! Future Maxpres probably coming even though I don't really understand the ship but I think it's cute! Raising a platypus the only way kids in a summer camp logically can! Sorry, but here's another chapter of this trash. Enjoy!**_

Preston stared down at the baby platypus, mind racing.

Did the author of the note already give it a name? No, no, it was only referred to as the baby or things along those lines in the note. Maybe it had a different name, but Preston had no way of knowing that information right now. Preston already knew he definitely wasn't going to call it Nurf Jr, that didn't really sound great and it only brought back bad memories of needing to be around Nurf for a whole day.

Well, the name didn't really matter right now, there were bigger concerns.

Who had taken the egg? The note _said_ that the writer stayed as impersonal as possible in it, but was that really true? Surely there was some way to track them! After all, he had some things to say! Wait, what _would_ he say when he found them?

Well, firstly he'd probably say thank you to them, for making sure the baby platypus didn't die and for cutting Preston's time as Nurf's partner short to get him out of that… bad situation. Preston wasn't really attached to the egg, so he didn't really mind that the person had taken it.

And how had they even managed that in the first place, anyway?! The timeframe between Nurf letting the egg out of his sight and finding the note really wasn't that large, so how did they even manage to get the egg without anyone noticing in the first place?! It was absurd!

Maybe Harrison was a potential suspect, then. After all, magic would be a worthy explanation for what had apparently occurred.

Wait, wait, wait. Was now really the time to start this investigation? Was there anything else that needed doing?

Preston glanced down to the baby. It seemed content in its slumber, which meant that Preston didn't need to worry about apparently wrestling the platypus mother for now. That was a relief.

Preston looked to his typewriter and paused. Should he start the investigation or should he work on his next play? Either one could probably wait until later, but which should he postpone?

Well, he didn't really have any ideas going into the writing process. He had just sort of hoped that inspiration would strike. And hey, experiencing his own mystery adventure might just give him inspiration to write one of his own later!

Preston nodded to himself, satisfied, and grabbed his notebook. For now he'd work on trying to find out who took the egg. First, Preston decided, he should deduce who definitely WASN'T guilty.

Well, for starters, it definitely wasn't himself or Nurf, Preston scribbled down. Space Kid was not only in a pen inside of a pen at the time thanks to Neil, but he also most likely wasn't able to carry an egg properly, and wasn't stealthy and nimble enough to pull of the robbery. Or was it technically a kidnapping? Whatever. So that ruled Space Kid out. The counselors most likely weren't responsible, he hadn't seen them all day since the activity began!

Wait. That was suspicious. Okay, Preston decided, he'd list them as unlikely instead of impossible. Better to be suspicious than sorry.

Oh! That reminded him! It most certainly wasn't Cameron Campbell either! Good, good. That should only leave his fellow campers. Well, that was assuming the Quartermaster wasn't responsible, but honestly he'd stabbed himself and animals too many times for him to possibly be able to care for a baby platypus. Then again, Preston thought, maybe he'd need to check the platypus mother for stab wounds later, just to be safe.

So that left Harrison, Nerris, Nikki, Neil, Max, Ered, and Dolf. And possibly David and Gwen.

Preston decided that he should first sort who was on the main suspect list. Harrison was on there obviously, Preston decided.

But wait. Hadn't he broken his and Nerris's egg _with_ his magic? Okay, maybe Harrison wouldn't be able to commit the egg thievery. Then again, he shouldn't be ruled out. Still on the main suspect list for now.

Preston decided he should first consider all of those who were directly at the scene that he saw, excluding Space Kid, himself, and Nurf. So that was.. Only Max, Nikki, and Neil? Wow, they were really the only ones there?

Unless someone else was nearby that Preston didn't notice. For now he'd consider the iconic trio, though. Maybe he'd try to find out if there were any more witnesses later. That could be hard though, considering he couldn't really question anyone, lest they become suspicious of what he'd doing. It'd be best to keep this situation secret.

But that was irrelevant right now. Preston had to focus.

First off, Nikki. She definitely has the potential to be able to do it, Preston hadn't gotten the chance to see her in action often, but he guessed that she could be pretty sneaky if she tried. And she was definitely strong enough to wrestle a platypus mother. And she was the only one able to actually hatch her platypus egg!

Although, the note _did_ criticize her methods. But the note had also said that the writer had attempted to remain as impersonal as possible, so that could potentially be a coverup?! Wait, the note actually just said that the writer knew better than to treat the egg like a human, which could technically apply to all of their methods. Drats. Wait, hold on.

Preston's eyes scanned the page again and noticed a very peculiar detail. Sure enough, the paper vaguely referred to what happened to Nikki and Max's platypus as, "But you saw the mother eat Nikki's platypus baby, I'm sure."

Not referring to the hatchling as Nikki's and Max's baby. Just referring to it as _Nikki's_. _That_ was extremely suspicious. Then again, Nikki did most of the work, so perhaps that wasn't absolute confirmation, most people _could_ hypothetically only think of Nikki as the egg's parent. Preston had to be careful, he didn't want to jump to any conclusions and approach the wrong person.

Nikki had some factors that could make her innocent, too. She had never seemed to catch on to what was happening with Nurf, even accidentally escalating the situation and causing the fight that'd happened before the egg was lost in the first place! Plus, he doubted that she'd be able to be able to come up with such a clever and flawless plan on the spot that easily. Under pressure, she'd likely do something much more drastic.

Still, that wasn't nearly enough to keep her off of the main suspects list. She was highly suspicious.

So that left him to analyze the next in the confirmed witnesses list, Neil. Neil was smart enough to come up with the plan easily, and could potentially be able to sneak around. But he was within a pen, and was already busy hovering over his own egg. He didn't directly interact with Preston since he had walked over to their group in the first place, and Preston didn't know if he was able to wrestle the platypus or not. He was known as a nerd, after all. The note _was_ full of random platypus tidbits that a nerd like Neil might know, though.

For now he'd stay on the regular suspect list. There didn't seem to be enough evidence of Neil having anything to do with this. He didn't seem particularly innocent, but he didn't seem too suspicious, either.

That left Max, then.

Max could definitely come up with a clever plan on the spot and sneak around well, he was often considered the leader of the trio after all. He didn't seem particularly strong or weak to Preston, he didn't know Max well enough to determine his abilities, so he could potentially wrestle a platypus. The writer criticized treating the eggs like humans too, which Max was the only person to actively do.

Max also seemed capable of removing incriminating evidence, making it possible for him to get away with the crime. And Nikki and Max's egg was referred to as Nikki's in the letter, which could mean Max was aware he didn't do much work and didn't consider the egg his. Plus, Max was the only person who'd actually seemed to catch on to what was happening to Preston.

But there was definitely some major flaws in this theory. For one, Max was a heartless asshole, unless he secretly cared, but that hadn't been confirmed to Preston, so he didn't know. For all Preston knew, that _could_ just only happen in musicals and plays.

Plus, there were tear stains on the note when Preston got it, which he wasn't sure Max could get emotional enough to leave there. Max was one of the only kids at camp who no one had ever seen cry, after all. Besides, even if he _did_ seem aware of Preston's situation, why would he care enough to try to help? Why would he even bother raising the egg? Max seemed like the type that would be much more likely to just dispose of the egg after stealing it.

But Max _did_ smile like everyone else when his egg hatched. Preston was on his way back to the theatre camp after comforting Nurf before he'd witnessed the whole thing. Unfortunately, he'd missed the speech about the experience of parenthood that Nikki had apparently gave, which sucked, because he's sure it was very inspirational. But Preston _did_ get to witness the egg hatch. He witnessed the small smile Max gave and the cheesy line he'd delivered before the newborn platypus was eaten before everyone's very eyes.

And though the scene ended up being pretty brutal in the end, it didn't change the fact that Max did seem to really love the baby platypus in the few seconds it had lived. But that begs the question; would that be enough for a cold, cynical boy like Max to attempt to raise an egg himself?

Preston decided that, for now, Max would be at the bottom of the main suspect list. There wasn't enough evidence for him to be more suspicious than Harrison and Nikki, although he did seem very suspicious. Preston would keep him in mind.

As Preston continued to scribble notes down into his notepad, he couldn't help but be excited. Maybe he could track down the writer of the note after all! There was a lot more evidence than he thought there'd be!

Preston looked over the list of main suspects once more. The only ones that had managed to make it there were Harrison, Nikki, and Max. Preston decided that Harrison would be the easiest to detect any suspicious behavior from, considering they were good friends. Max would be the hardest, as he usually didn't display any emotions other than annoyance and anger.

Preston decided to look over his notes once more before going to the mess hall for breakfast. He looked over the words he'd wrote carefully, before noticing something. Preston had torn the page he'd used to write his call for help out of this section of his notebook, as evidenced by the careful tear along the subtle dotted line where the lined paper was meant to be torn from and the remnants of the page. But that wasn't what he'd noticed.

What he'd noticed was the more desperate, messy tear and more jagged remnants of a page that definitely hadn't been torn out by Preston.

(I really hope that made sense, I may or may not suck at describing things.)

Preston gasped. Who else had torn a page from his notebook?! Preston's mind flashed to the note that "Nurf Jr" had left after "running away."

Holy shit.

Preston quickly scribbled his findings down into his notes, although he was unsure if that detail could help him find whoever took the egg. But it was still a little detail that he couldn't help but get excited about.

It _did_ give insight as to how the culprit pulled of their crime. They'd taken Preston's stuff and torn out a page to write the note with. But how had they gotten his stuff, anyway?

Preston thought for a moment, and suddenly remembered looking for his notebook a few hours after the egg incident, afraid that he'd lost it, before he'd remembered that the last time he'd had it was when he'd wrote his note. He had gone to where he'd wrote it and found the notebook open, on the ground next to his pen. Right how he'd left them, and just a little ways away from were Nikki, Neil, and Max were.

So someone must've seen it and had decided that they should write a note so that they could take the egg.

Preston gasped loudly, excited. _That's_ how the culprit had gotten the idea to write a note to leave in place of the egg, and _that's_ how they'd gotten the things to write the note with in the first place.

Preston looked to his notebook and pen with newfound awe, smiling widely. Knowing how everything had happened could potentially help the investigation, but Preston wasn't sure. Still, it was amazing to know.

He grinned, proud of himself. Preston didn't know he had such excellent deduction skills! It looks like years of theorizing over plays and musicals had payed off.

With newfound determination, Preston made his way to the mess hall, notebook and pen in hand, and ready to see if any of the campers exhibited any suspicious behavior, and no that wasn't creepy!

He looked to the baby platypus once more, seeing it was still asleep, and headed out.

…

Preston had a tendency of waking up early, so he was one of the first ones in the mess hall, despite the time it took to write up all those notes. He turned to a new page, and looked around the mess hall. So far the only ones in the mess hall besides him were Nikki, Neil, and Max. Nikki also had a tendency of waking up early, and dragging her friends out of bed with her to hang out and eat breakfast.

Preston looked over the group, and watched Nikki excitedly chatting with Neil. Max took a long sip from his mug, filled with black coffee.

"Hey Preston, what're you up to?" Harrison asked, coming into the mess hall only moments ago and sitting by the theatre boy. Preston blinked out of his daze, looking to his friend.

"Nothing much, just doing an… investigation." Preston told him, being sure to not give any details. If Harrison was worried at all by this, he didn't show it. Preston discretely took note of this.

"An investigation?" The magical boy questioned. "What are you investigating?"

"It's a secret. I can't tell anyone. At least, not yet." Preston replied nervously, as more kids filtered into the mess hall. "Aww, why not?" Harrison whined, disappointed.

"If anyone finds out, or more specifically if news gets back to a, err, _certain person_ , some bad things could happen." Preston explained, trying his best to remain vague.

"Well, okay then! You seem kinda tense, if you want I could try to make your stress _disappear?_ " Harrison joked, making Preston to chuckle a bit. The two fell into comfortable silence as Harrison began practicing his magic, whilst Preston continued observing everyone, as more and more campers started filtering into the mess hall. Luckily, Harrison seemed content to not question the investigation anymore.

Good.

Everything seemed pretty normal. Dolph was doing something, uh, Hitler-y as usual, Ered leaning against a nearby wall and watching whilst trying to keep her purple bangs out of her eyes. Nerris had come over to argue with Harrison about magic stuff, and Nurf was walking over to a nearby table to eat after messing with Space Kid for a bit. Gwen and David were trying to keep everything under control.

Space Kid wandered over to where Nikki, Neil, and Max were, trying to get them to play with him probably. None of them seemed particularly interested in that today, so he gave up and wandered off to do something else instead.

Nikki and Neil were chattering to each other as usual, as Max remained silent. He drank a bit more out of his mug before going off to get more and coming back.

Strange. Max usually didn't need a second cup of coffee in the mornings.

Preston decided to focus on Max a bit more, and noticed a few things that were subtly off about the usually cynical and annoyed boy. He barely interjected or added any of his own points to Nikki and Neil's conversation, just staring down at his coffee. He didn't look as annoyed as usual, rather, he looked detached and unhappy. There were usually bags under his eyes, but they had been seeming darker than usual lately.

For the past two weeks, the past week especially, the bags under Max's eyes had been seeming to grow darker. He'd been seeming more nervous than usual before today, and had been very stressed yesterday during the camp activity, snapping at David and Gwen more than usual.

Preston idly scribled these details down in his notebook, observing the now-quiet boy. Eventually, Max glanced over to Preston, causing a spike of panic to well up inside the theatre boy. Instead of darting his eyes away like he so desperately wanted to, he put his acting skills to use. He slowly blinked, as if coming out of a daze, and made eye contact with Max for a moment, before blinking again and focusing on something else, looking uncaring and sleepy. At least, he hoped that was how he looked.

The act of being lost in thought and sleepy seemed to work on the other boy, as instead of giving the actor an annoyed glare, he instead just went back to staring into his cup of coffee.

Preston decided not to look Max's way for a little while, just to be safe. Instead, he focused in on Nerris and Harrison's discussion, adding a few of his own points as well. He was distracted from his investigations for the rest of the morning.

…

When Max was awoken by Nikki, he didn't feel any better than he had last night. In fact, he felt like he hadn't gotten any rest at all. Great.

Max hated it when this happened.

Max yawned and stretched, trying not to acknowledge the energetic girl trying to drag him out of bed. Normally, he would be used to this. But not today.

"C'mon Max! Let's go!" Nikki exclaimed. Max flopped back down onto his cot, still trying to deny the fact that he was awake now. "Max, are you okay?" Neil asked in the background, which Max ignored as well.

"Come onnnn! Get up!" Nikki whined. Max eventually relented, sighing and standing up, grabbing his hoodie and putting it on immediately. Nikki cheered as the three made their way to the mess hall. Max broke into the kitchen and made himself some coffee, as usual.

No one even tried to stop him from doing that at this point. They'd all seen how he can be without his coffee, and knew if he didn't get it he wouldn't do anything that day.

Max poured the coffee into his mug and made his way back to his friends, sitting down in his usual spot. He stared into the dark, warm liquid in his cup with a blank expression, reminiscent. He knew that giving the baby platypus to Preston was the right thing to do, but he still couldn't help but be upset over it.

He'd raised that stupid baby. He'd made sure it hadn't died. And he'd gotten _way_ too attached to it in such a short span of time, despite not even taking the time to name it. And now, he would never see it again.

Well, unless he broke into wherever Preston ended up keeping it, which was unlikely. That'd be a stupid decision.

Max took a long sip of the coffee, trying to get his precious caffeine into his system. As he tried to tune into whatever conversation Nikki and Neil were having and nursing his coffee all the while, he couldn't bring himself to respond to anything they said. He didn't have enough energy right now.

He placed the mug on the table after taking another sip when the doors to the mess hall opened, Max's eyes darting over to the entrance involuntarily and watching Preston go over to his usual table and start scribbling in his notebook, Harrison joining him a few minutes later. Max forced himself to look away. He had to stop worrying.

After all, he'd decided to get rid of the platypus so that he could stop being so stressed. Now that it was out of his care, he had to stop stressing over it.

Max took a long sip of his coffee to try and distract himself from Preston. Still, he couldn't help but notice that the boy had seemed a bit more fidgety than usual, and instead of talking much to Harrison, who now was trying to work on controlling some fire in his hand, was instead scribbling down ideas for his next play, or maybe doodling.

Max stared down into his coffee, there wasn't much left, and tried to regain his focus. He decided to blame his lack of concentration on being tired from being up later than usual last night. He took another sip from his mug, swallowing up the last of his coffee.

He was still tired.

Max decided to go get more.

Still, no one tried to stop him, still, luckily.

Max continued staring down at his coffee, repressing his emotions, and trying not to look at Preston for a while before failing the latter one of those, glancing up.

He found that Preston was looking back at him. They made eye contact for a moment. Preston blinked, not reacting for a second, before glancing back down to his notes, reading through them. Max stared back down to his coffee, wondering if Preston hadn't slept well last night too.

He's probably fine, Max decided, narrowing his eyes angrily. It was early in the morning after all, it would be stupid to think someone was feeling the same way as he was right now. Max watched as Preston joined in on Nerris and Harrison's bickering, and sighed to himself. It was an absolutely typical day. Max was the only camper here that was feeling off. The only one here who was upset.

Max wondered if Preston had found the box yet. He sighed.

" _Get a grip, or David's going to notice and try to get you to talk about what's wrong."_ He thought to himself, frowning. That was the last thing he needed right now.

Max drank a bit more of his coffee. It was only slightly darker than his mood.

…

Preston sighed unhappily, making his way back to theatre camp. It was a few hours later now, and he'd just remembered the baby platypus a few minutes ago, who was sure to be up and hungry by now.

But that wasn't why he was unhappy. He didn't know whether or not the baby was hard to deal with yet. So, as of now, Preston was fine with taking care of the baby.

No, what had made Preston so unhappy was the excuse he'd use to get out of the scheduled camp activity. Max was still being off, going from snapping at Gwen and David more than usual yesterday to being completely silent today, which had made Preston remember this morning. Which had made him remember the platypus baby he'd received this morning. Which had made him try to come up with an excuse to come back to camp.

Unfortunately, Preston, dramatic as ever, had thought that getting his leg too hurt to hike anymore would be a perfect excuse. In hindsight, that was a pretty stupid idea.

Although Preston had been exaggerating a fair bit, it still hurt a lot. And poor Gwen had to take him back to camp to make sure that he didn't collapse on the way there, leaving David alone with the kids.

Preston felt really bad for the counselors right now.

And he still had to wrestle that Platypus mother, with a hurt leg now.

Well, maybe after the platypus kicked his ass, he'd be able to sit out camp activities for a few more days, Preston decided pessimistically.

Preston collapsed onto his chair, sighing to himself, before taking the box that he'd hidden under his desk and picking it up, looking inside.

Surely enough, the baby was awake now, staring up at him with wide, curious eyes. Preston felt his heart melt a bit; he'd never seen a baby platypus up close before. It made a distressed sounding noise, which Preston realized probably meant that it needed to be fed.

Preston thought for a moment. How would he get the baby to its mother inconspicuously?

Preston looked to the box it was in, and then to the writing on the top. He glanced to some of his old props from previous plays, in labeled boxes of their own.

Hmm.

…

About five minutes later, Preston was walking along the abandoned campgrounds, a box labeled "Props" with a baby platypus and a fluffy towel inside. He'd switched the box the platypus was in for this one, because he'd figured that the peculiar text across the top of the box would be too suspicious to take outside.

Preston looked around anxiously. Where was the mother? Preston was ready to throw some hands!

…

Another five minutes later, Preston was standing in front of the cannibal platypus herself, unsure of what to do next.

He carefully took the baby out of its box, holding it in his hands protectively. The mother's eyes seemed to hold some sort of recognition.

Preston walked to her carefully, the platypus immediately taking a defensive stance. Preston paused, not sure how to handle this. He looked to the baby in his hands, and back to the mother.

He walked back to the props box, a few holes poked near the top now, and carefully put the baby inside, securing it with the old piece of scotch tape stuck to the top to make sure the mother couldn't get into it.

He looked back to the mother, bright determination burning in his eyes.

He lunged, a battle cry escaping from his throat.

The platypus moved faster than expected doding as Preston fell to the ground. The creature… hissed? Something like that.

Preston cracked his knuckles. This was going to take a while.

…

Preston grinned weakly, panting. He'd done it. The stupid platypus was pinned under him. Unfortunately, he was a ways away from the box he'd left the baby in. Fuck.

What now?

Preston decided that he would need to move the platypus. He thought for a moment, before grabbing her and picking her up the way Gwen did when they'd all first met their mascot, holding her up by the base of the tail and holding her as far away from himself as possible, limping back to the box whilst trying to keep a hold on the mother as she hissed and squirmed.

After he'd made his way to the box, he carefully laid the platypus on her back, pinning her once more, and trying not to get scratched as she cried out fearfully. She was basically an animal backed into a corner, but pinned on the ground. So not a great situation.

Preston opened up the box and put the baby on the mother's stomach, far from the mouth, just as the note had told him that he author had done before. Preston looked to the platypus desperately. The mascot for the camp looked back, seeming to understand what was happening now. There was a moment of silence.

"Come on, platypus. I'm sure you know the drill, don't make this more difficult than it has to be. Feed the child." Preston muttered softly, desperate and a bit annoyed.

Luckily, the platypus knew what it had to do, reluctantly feeding her youth.

…

Preston slowly pulled up his arm from the platypus, backing away slowly. The platypus mother growled at him, before leaving to go wherever she went in her free time.

"Thank god that's over." Sighed Preston, picking up the props box that the baby was now inside of again and limping his way back to the theatre camp, wanting to look over his notes. Preston was exhausted, but he knew that the more time he wasted the more evidence that could be used for his investigation would disappear. So, instead of waiting until tomorrow to look over his notes, he'd decided to do it now.

" _It didn't take me long to get really invested in this"_ , Preston thought tiredly.

After Preston was a little ways away from where he had wrestled the platypus, he heard a rustling in the bushes, pausing. He knew that couldn't be the platypus, she'd went towards the lake. So what…?

Max emerged from the bushes, startling Preston, who let out a yelp. He'd thought it was just some wild animal or something, but he was clearly mistaken.

"H-hello?!" Preston greeted the boy, confused as to why he was even here. "Hey." Max replied, completely unfazed.

"You look pretty hurt there."

"Uh-" Preston made a confused little noise, confused as to why Max gave a shit. Why was he even here in the first place, anyway? But that didn't matter right now, what mattered is that Preston had to think up an excuse now.

"Oh, uh, I guess I fell a bit harder than I thought." Preston replied nervously. "D-during the hike today. A few twigs must've scratched me up." He clarified, not really because Max needed clarification, but rather because Preston just said it because he was nervous.

Max hummed in acknowledgement.

"Why do you have a props box?" Max asked, squinting suspiciously.

"UH." Preston tensed up, not sure how to respond right away.

"E-err, well, I was j-just getting some stones and twigs and stuff for my next play; there's a scene that's supposed to take place in a forest! It's coming along really spectacularly so far!" Preston lied, smiling to seal the deal. "Wait, why do you even care?"

Max shrugged nonchalantly, acting as if he didn't have reason for his actions, although secretly, he really did. It was a test.

"Well, I was on my way to the councillor's cabin to go steal some shit, so I guess I should get back to that." Max told the theatre boy, before heading off towards the councillor's cabin, berating himself for his poor excuses.

Preston watched as the boy walked off towards the councillor's cabin, likely to bug the shit out of David and/or Gwen, feeling more confused then he did before. Whatever, Preston decided, it didn't even matter right now.

What _mattered_ was getting back to the theatre camp and looking over his notes so that he could lay down and finally rest.

Preston continued his trek to his stage, limping heavily. His leg was already hurt before, but it felt a lot worse after wrestling with the camp mascot. Preston winced, sighing to himself. At least he wouldn't need to participate in any camp activities for a while. As he'd suspected.

…

Preston collapsed into his seat, sighing to himself. Finally. After he'd gotten here, he'd decided that the baby would need a blanket softer than a towel, and had gotten out an old costume to line the box with. Looks like the nest was entirely new now. Huh.

Now, it was finally time to look over the damn notes, Preston decided as he put the box under his desk. He had decided it would be easier to keep the makeshift nest in the theatre camp rather than his tent, as he'd often spent more time in the former.

He flipped open his notebook, flicking through it lazily. He looked over the notes from the morning.

 _-Harrison seems completely normal, and wasn't worried at all at mentions of an investigation._

 _-Ered seemed to be watching what Dolph was doing, which was something that could be easily taken as offensive but likely wasn't meant to be that way, as usual_

 _-Nerris and Harrison are arguing now, as usual_

 _-Nikki and Neil are talking, nothing seems to be off there, but I can't tell what they're saying_

 _-Max got a second cup of coffee this morning, which he doesn't usually do_

 _-Max isn't engaging in Nikki and Neil's conversation_

 _-Max seems more depressed and empty rather than annoyed or angry_

 _-Max looks really tired_

 _-He's been looking tired for the past week_

 _-He's been really stressed and nervous for about two weeks now actually, this week especially so_

 _-Yesterday especially so, more than before, which is saying something_

 _-David and Gwen are working hard to keep everything under control, as usual_

Preston blinked, shocked as he read over his notes. They were pretty normal at first, but then he'd gotten to notes about Max. A little over half of his notes were about Max, some not even being specific to this morning. When had Preston noticed these things about the boy?

But there were more. Preston had taken his notebook along for the hike too, scribbling down a few more notes then when no one was looking, before he'd hurt his leg to get back to the platypus. Once again, most of the notes were about Max.

How he'd been seeming a lot snappier with the councillors for the past two weeks, before becoming completely detached from them today.

How he'd walked separately from his friend group before David had gotten concerned and tried to confront him, to which Max had responded to by brushing it off and rejoining his group so that David wouldn't try to approach him again (David was too nice to attempt to confront Max in front of his friends), but still not really interacting with any of them.

Even some of the notes about Nikki and Neil linked back to Max, the notes had read that they'd seemed nervous, but that was likely because they were concerned for their friend.

One of the things that Preston had gathered from this was that didn't know that he knew so much about Max. But that was the last thing on his mind right now, because he'd also gotten a much more important message from this. There was almost no doubt about this now.

Preston absentmindedly remembered a question he'd asked himself this morning. Would the remembrance of Max and Nikki's newborn platypus be enough for Max to attempt to raise an egg himself. The answer appeared to be yes.

Because there was almost no doubt that Max had taken and raised Preston's egg.

 _ **AND THAT'S IT. OH BOY. THIS WAS A DOOZIE TO WRITE. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A WORD IS DOOZIE?!**_

 _ **Anyway, this took a while to write, but I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. Then again, I haven't looked over it again to make sure everything makes sense yet. And by the way, if you're wondering, yes, Max did have reason for coming out of nowhere and questioning Preston. Trust me. And for that matter, for anyone who's wondering, there WILL be another chapter. I just have no idea when.**_


	3. Confrontation

_**Woah it's been too long since I've updated this one, sorry. Welp, time to get to that I guess! Hope you all enjoy!**_

 **T/W: Panic attacks and brief mentions of self harm. Proceed with caution.** _ ****_

Max sighed in relief, seeing the camp in the distance. Once Gwen had left to make sure that Preston wouldn't collapse on his way back to the tents, it was pretty easy to sneak away from the hiking activity. Which was good. Max decidedly did _not_ have the strength to deal with that today.

He shoved his hands in his pockets as he made his way towards his tent, slouching. Max sighed in relief as he approached his destination. He opened up the flap, about to enter the tent, before pausing, hearing a high pitched cry in the distance.

Max glanced towards the direction of the sound, growing somewhat worried. What was that? Wasn't the camp abandoned? So who…?

After a moment of debate, he made his way over to the noise, through the bushes. Soon, he heard more noise, growling and hissing being what stood out most. He looked out of the brush, eyes widening at what he saw. It was Preston, who was currently attempting to wrestle the platypus.

Oh, okay. Okay, good, this wasn't anything of interest then. Max could just go back to his tent, lay down, and pretend this never happened, okay.

But despite this, he didn't move, stunned by the scene unfolding before him. He should just turn back now. This didn't concern him. But… Well.

He wanted to make sure that Preston was doing his job right at least.

Despite his better judgement, Max stayed where he was, crouching down in the bushes to hide better. He watched as Preston lunged, and missed once more. He had a feeling that this would take a while.

Max winced, watching as Preston got scratched and kicked by the wild animal. He tried to ignore the waves of guilt coming, knowing that if he hadn't given the baby to Preston this wouldn't be happening in the first place.

Finally, after a long struggle, Preston pinned the platypus, crying out in triumph. The theatre geek looked around for a moment, before despair come across his features. The box, which presumably held the baby platypus, was a ways away now.

Max felt another pang of guilt as the other boy's features dimmed. He'd brought this upon Preston, who did nothing to deserve it. This was _his_ fault. If it wasn't for Max, Preston would be writing his shitty plays right now, without a care in the world. But because of him here he was, being hurt, and that was Max's fau-

Max's self deprecation was interrupted as he watched Preston pick up the platypus by the base of her tail, his eyes widening as the creature squirmed and screeched wildly.

Max continued to watch in pure amazement as the theatre geek took the platypus over to the box nearby, pinning it down again. He reached inside and took out the baby platypus.

Max averted his eyes, not wanting to see the child he'd left behind.

 _Wait_ , there was something wrong with that sentence. Child? It was a fucking platypus!

" _Damn it"_ , Max thought to himself, brows furrowing, _"looks like I've gotten just as stupid as everyone else here."_

The blue hooded boy decided to ignore the dull ache in his heart, instead focusing back in on Preston. It looked like the platypus had understood why Preston was there now, and fed the baby quickly, seeming to want to get this over with.

Max watched as Preston put the baby back in the props box, picking up the box afterwards. The platypus walked back towards the lake as Preston limped back to the theatre camp. He looked exhausted.

Max felt another jolt of hurt in his heart at that. He'd done this.

Before he knew it, Max felt himself drifting towards the boy, and before he could stop himself, he was there in front of Preston who, shrieked in response to seeing him.

No, no, what was he doing here?! This wasn't right, he was just supposed to go back to his tent, he wasn't supposed to approach Preston!

"H-hello?!" Preston stammered, still calming down from being startled so badly. Max tried to calm himself down as much as he could before responding. "Hey."

There was a moment of silence as Max tried to figure out what to say. "You look pretty hurt there."

Max internally facepalmed, before getting an idea. Well, he may as well find out if Preston was really fit for the job of a platypus parent. He wanted to see if the theatre geek could come up with a good alibi.

"Uh- Oh, uh, I guess I fell a bit harder than I thought…" Preston answered. There was a quick pause before the other continued to ramble nervously, continuing with, "D-during the hike today. A few twigs must've scratched me up."

Max blinked, before humming in response, thinking to himself. Okay, not bad. Without the stuttering, that would be an acceptable lie. He decided to press a bit harder, to make sure the boy wouldn't crack under pressure.

Yeah. Sure. That's what he was doing.

"Why do you have a props box?" The boy asked, a suspicious tone lacing his voice, despite already knowing exactly what Preston was doing.

"UH." Preston visibly tensed, and Max almost felt bad. But instead of letting it go, he felt his gaze harden. Even though Max knew he was making the other boy nervous, he also knew that he had to go through with this. He needed closure, he needed to know that Preston wouldn't break. Now that he had started this, he couldn't just _stop._

"E-err, well," Preston began, stuttering, "I was just getting some stones and twigs and stuff for my next play; there's a scene that's supposed to take place in a forest! It's coming along really spectacularly so far!" The theatre boy lied, smiling excitedly.

Max felt his eyes widen a bit. Other than the stuttering at the beginning, that was pretty much a perfect lie. Maybe Preston was capable of doing this after all. Max felt… relieved.

(He refused to acknowledge the part of himself that felt hurt by this revelation.)

"Wait, why do you even care?" Preston asked, tilting his head a bit like a confused puppy. Max just shrugged, not trusting his voice right now. After a moment, he spoke, fighting hard to make sure his voice didn't break.

"Well, I was on my way to the councilor's cabin to go steal some shit, so I guess I should get back to that." He told Preston, before turning on his heel and walking towards the councilor's cabin as quickly as he could without being seen as suspicious.

"Damn it, Max." The boy muttered to himself. Preston had definitely passed the test, as unnecessary as it was. Again, part of Max was upset by this. The boy in the blue hoodie rounded the corner of the cabin. He sighed and leaned against the wall, knowing he wouldn't be visible to Preston at this angle. He slowly slid down the wall, hugging his knees to his chest.

Max didn't cry, he wouldn't let himself cry any more than he already did.

Instead, he just sat, shuddering. Yep, Preston was a perfect parent for the platypus, no doubt about it. His initial judgement was correct. So why did that hurt so much? 

… Max, despite his denial, knew the answer. How someone as cold and unfeeling as him could get so attached to a stupid animal in only a couple of weeks, one of which the platypus was _still in the fucking egg for_ , was astonishing to him. Max didn't understand himself. He didn't know how his emotions worked.

He thought he'd be _happy_ to leave the baby with Preston. He thought he'd be _relieved_ to know that Preston would be a good parent to the baby.

So why…?

Max sighed, standing up on shaky legs. He was about leave, before noticing something out of the corner of his eye, freezing. He slowly glanced over, seeing an irritatingly familiar shade of red.

After a moment, the boy slowly turned, and unfortunately, saw just who he thought he would. David, standing a distance away, blinking at him owlishly. Max felt his face flush in embarrassment at being caught so weak.

The two made eye contact for a moment, David's eyes being soft, confused, and concerned whilst Max's were piercing and angry, a subtle undertone of pain and fear lining the edges of the boy's expression.

Max promptly turned and left through the bushes, taking a shortcut back to his tent. He ignored David's shocked and worried voice calling for him to come back, continuing on his way.

David paused for a moment, realizing that Max wasn't coming back. He sighed to himself.

Max had been acting really strange lately, not snapping like he used to and instead being more quiet and downcast. And seeing him curled up by the counselor cabin's wall, eyes holding such intense pain as he stared into nothing, had confirmed David's fears. This wasn't just some weird mood swing or anything like that.

No, something was actually _wrong._ Something was making Max feel like that. _Something_ was making Max quiet and depressed instead of angry and annoyed. And that scared him. Because David didn't have any idea _what_ the problem was or how to help fix it.

David tried to get a hold of himself. Whatever was wrong with Max, whatever problem was burdening the boy, David knew that he _had_ to help him.

The redhead sighed to himself. The next time he saw the blue hooded boy, he'd talk to him about this. But for now, Max clearly didn't want to talk. And that was fine, he'd give Max his space. But as soon as he's in a better mood, David promised himself, he _would_ talk to him.

…

Max sighed, collapsing onto his cot. He'd hated today with a passion, he decided. He took off his hoodie, and curled up under his blankets. Well, if nothing else, at least the cot was comfortable. Well, as comfortable as anything at Camp Campbell _could_ be.

A while later, Neil came in. He didn't bother asking why Max was going to sleep so early, already being used to the boy's strange sleeping habits. Sometimes, the malcontented boy would stay up into early morning, or even all night. Other times, he'd be so exhausted that he'd go to sleep almost immediately after camp activities. It would've been concerning if Neil wasn't already so used to it.

Maybe he _should've_ been concerned.

But that wasn't important right now. What _was_ important was sleep. Max started to drift off, sighing happily, before being interrupted by someone entering the tent. The sleepy boy grumbled a bit, not wanting Nikki to try to bug him right now. He _really_ wasn't in in the mood.

But it wasn't Nikki.

"H-hello?" A familiar voice greeted him. Max opened his eyes, surprised. Sure enough, there he was. Preston.

 _...But why was Preston here?_

The confused expression on the still only half awake boy's face must have said enough, for Preston then started to speak.

"I, uh, wanted to talk to you?" The theatre geek told him, sounding uncharacteristically nervous and unsure of himself.

Max was immediately confused, but decided that if he actually _did_ talk to Preston, he'd explain. "Okay." Max told him, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Preston nervously glanced towards Neil, who was trying to focus on some nerdy bullshit, but also seemed to want to know what was going on and was glancing up at Preston and Max occasionally. Max noticed, and sighed heavily.

"Alright, let's get out of here then." He muttered, glaring. He slowly uncurled himself from his blanket cocoon, yawning and stretching before noticing Preston was staring.

"What?" The shorter boy asked, glaring. Preston blinked, face flushing.

"Sorry! I've just never seen you without your hoodie before!"

Max looked down at himself, noticing that he was only in his Camp Campbell T-Shirt. His face flushed and he panicked a bit, grabbing his hoodie and putting it on immediately. Oh no. He hoped Preston hadn't seen any of his scars.

"A-ah, no, it's fine you don't need to-" Preston was immediately nervous, afraid he'd made the boy feel insecure, before being shut up by a harsh glare. "Come on, let's go talk." Max hissed. Preston nodded, following the boy quietly.

They stopped a distance away from Max's tent, underneath a pine tree. Max had gotten over his initial anger, his confusion taking the steering wheel once more. He looked to Preston, who looked more nervous than before. He decided he didn't like this expression on the boy's face.

"So why did you want to talk to me exactly?" Max asked, still struggling to wake up fully. Preston glanced away, cupping the back of his neck with his hand.

Max watched as Preston shrank in on himself a bit, hunching over and wrapping his arms around himself nervously. Max hadn't seen Preston like this since before he'd stolen the egg.

And considering the fact that the reason Preston looked so nervous then was because he was being basically abused, Max immediately prepared for the worst.

"I…" Preston choked out, looking overwhelmed. Max frowned, unhappy at the sight of the boy's discomfort. Preston seemed to notice this, looking surprised before his eyes softened, becoming only a bit more relaxed.

"I-I'm just kinda nervous about saying it, y-yeah? Like, if word gets back to everyone else…" Preston muttered, eyes clouding over with fear, thinking about all the questions that everyone would ask, David and Gwen, _Nurf…_

Preston didn't like the possibilities of what would happen if they found out about this.

"... _Bad things_ could happen." He settled on. Despite the simplicity of the comment, Max could tell how serious Preston was.

Max tried his best not to jump to any conclusions about what Preston was about to say, making eye contact with Preston.

"Tell me."

"Were you the one who left the box in the theatre camp?" 

… Wait.

Wait.

 _What?_

"What?" Max murmured, feeling his eyes widen as his breath was stolen from him. Preston looked slightly triumphant, as if Max's reaction solidified his idea. Despite this, Preston didn't make any accusations just yet, wanting to hear the other confirm his suspicions.

"Were _you_ the one who left the box in the theatre camp?"

Max couldn't breathe.

 _He couldn't breathe._

 _How did he find out?_

"W-what… What box?" He asked, breathless and alarmed. Still, he tried to lie. Preston _couldn't_ see how weak he was.

"You _know_ what I'm talking about, don't you Max?" Preston replied, sounding just as breathless as Max felt. The blue hooded boy felt himself beginning to hyperventilate, but tried to keep himself as put together on the outside as possible.

"D-do I now?" He asked, glaring as coldly as possible. The look in his eyes ended up being more fearful than anything, unbeknownst to him.

"Yes. Yes you do." Preston replied, eyes softening as he looked to the panicking boy. Max didn't notice. He only felt dread and horror.

Max didn't notice himself begin to tear up. Preston's eyes widened. Max tensed up, expression no longer trying to hide his fear.

"Max, Max no-" Preston cried out, reaching his hand to the other, knowing with a sinking feeling what would happen just a moment before it did. He was a moment too late.

Max ran away, dashing through the trees.

"Max!" Preston cried out to no avail. Max was already long gone. Preston paused a moment, before deciding to try and follow him.

Max dashed through the trees, weaving through them skillfully. If he hadn't spent so much time running from David, there would be no way he'd be able to do this so easily. He silently thanked him. He heaved, legs burning. He tried to calm himself; he was breathing far faster than he should be. He needed to preserve his energy.

Max glanced over his shoulder, eyes wide. Preston was trying his best to pursue him, but was a fair distance behind. That's strange, why couldn't he catch up? Max's eyes darted to Preston's legs, quickly finding his answer.

Preston was still limping, unable to build much speed. Max felt a rush of relief, before quickly feeling awful because of it. Preston was hurt. That shouldn't be reliving. Max cut off his own train of thought. He had to focus, had to run. He sped up, knowing now he'd easily lose Preston in the forest.

Max ran, and he was sure Preston couldn't keep up. Not with that leg. He ducked behind a tree, panting heavily. He tried to calm himself down. He couldn't stop yet; he wasn't hidden! Max's eyes darted around, locking onto the tree he was behind. He might be able to climb this.

He gripped the tree harshly, trying to yank himself up. He failed, losing his grip. He tried again. And again. _And again._

He let out a frustrated growl as he lost his hold on the trunk. He tried again and, finally, he succeeded, grasping onto the branch he was trying to reach and pulling himself up. He quickly grabbed at a few more until he was out of sight.

He leaned up against the trunk, curling up in a ball almost immediately. The boy shuddered, his breathing shallow as tears flooded down his face. He tried once again to calm himself down, but couldn't, bombarded by his own anxious thoughts.

Oh god. Preston _knew._ What did that mean for him?

It meant that Preston knew how _weak_ he was, for starters. But he also knew who stole his egg. He knew who was awful enough to just plain _abandon_ the baby. He knew where to potentially…

Oh fuck.

He knew where to return the baby.

What if Preston decided that he didn't _want_ to take care of the platypus? What then? He knew where to return it, and now that Preston knew that was a potential option…

Max had just assumed Preston would be fine taking care of the platypus, but now that he knew that Max was the one who'd taken care of it before, what if he decided it was too much of a commitment? What if he'd decide to return the baby to him? No, _no,_ Max couldn't take care of it, he was too weak to do it all on his own! 

He'd already left it once, he wasn't fit to parent it again, he'd already ruined that when he first decided it was too much work, he couldn't just _take it back!_

But if Preston decided that was what he was going to do, what other choice did he have?

Max had a harder time stifling his sobs now. Oh god. Preston was going to return the baby, and Max couldn't do anything about it. He was going to collapse from the stress. Preston was going to laugh. Preston was going to see how much he was struggling and laugh. Oh fuck. No, no no…

"Max?" A distant voice in the forest cried out. Max curled up tighter, putting his hands over his mouth to muffle his own crying.

"Maaax?" The other called again. "Come on, come out, don't make me get David!" He threatened, sounding nervous. Max tensed up a bit, but still refused to move, despite the voice calling out his name a few more times, seemingly getting closer despite Max's best efforts to stay quiet.

"Please, I just want to talk about this! Come out!" Preston called. Max listened closely as Preston came into view, now visible from the tree Max was in. He muttered under his breath anxiously, calling for Max periodically.

Max stayed quiet as he looked down at Preston from his perch in the tree. The boy looked like a trainwreck, as if he had run into several bushes and low-hanging branches on his way through the forest. He had leaves in his hair and scrapes on his arms and face, but he didn't seem to notice.

It was easy for Max to read Preston's expression, even from a distance. Preston looked concerned. And confused. And like he was _looking_ _right at Max now._

Max froze, not willing to believe that Preston had actually seen him, curled up in a tree with tears that weren't quite done flowing yet still on his face. But the evidence was right there. Preston was staring right at him.

 _Wait._

Max followed Preston's gaze, seeing that he was staring at a pine tree a ways away, positioned just right enough to give Max a heart attack. He looked back to Preston, unsure of why he was looking so intently at this tree, before feeling his heart stop at the other's expression.

Pure terror.

"Oh no… don't tell me… _no…_ " Max watched as Preston, muttering to himself, slowly approached the bushes near the tree Max was in. He slowly moved them aside, revealing a steep cliffside. The theatre geek's eyes widened in horror as he covered his mouth with his hands and stumbled a few steps back.

"Oh god, this is the Sleepy Pine that David warned us about… And it looks just like any other piece of the forest, what if Max thought it was solid ground?! He never listened to David anyway!" Max's eyes widened as Preston's ranting increased in volume, the taller boy burying his fists in his hair as he began to pace.

"Max?! MAX!" He cried out again desperately, terrified for the sarcastic boy's safety. Max covered his ears, eyes wide and expression horrified.

" _He thinks I ran off the cliff. He thinks I'm dead. Holy shit. This is so much worse than before! He actually thinks I died!"_

"Max?!" Preston shrieked, starting to sob. Max shivered heavily, and finally broke.

"Okay, nope, definitely not, I'm not letting this go on any longer." Max declared, jumping from the tree, wincing from the height of the fall as he landed on his feet. Preston whipped around to face him. Max didn't like getting to see his heartbroken expression closer, but the relief on the other boy's face following it made it almost worth it.

"I'm here, I'm okay, holy fuck." He announced, unsure of what to say but wanting to comfort Preston to the best of his ability. There was a moment of silence, and Max found himself trying to break it quickly.

"See, I'm fine, everything's fi- OOF!" Max was cut off as Preston launched himself at the cynic, immediately enveloping him in a bone crushing hug. Max froze as Preston clung to him, still wailing, before nervously patting him on the back.

"Um, there there?" Max muttered, caught extremely off guard.

When was the last time someone had hugged him...?

"You fucking idiot!" Preston wailed, causing Max to flinch a bit. "I thought you died!"

"Uh, yeah, I know that?" Max replied, confused. Preston pulled back a bit, letting Max see his exasperated expression.

"Uh, I mean, I'm sorry?" Max asked, panicking a bit.

"That's better." Preston sighed, exasperated, before pulling Max closer to him again. The blue hooded boy began to blush, still unsure of what to do.

" _Wow,_ " Max thought to himself, slowly wrapping his arms around Preston in return, _"I suck at comforting people worse than I thought."_

They held each other in silence for a moment, before Preston spoke.

"You really scared me, you know."

"Yeah, I'm sorry…." Max muttered in response. _"... I don't know why that'd scare you though."_ He thought to himself. Honestly, he was pretty worthless anyway, why would Preston even care if he ran off a cliff?

Well, it was probably more the idea of being the indirect cause of the loss of a human life more than anything personal, Max decided. It wasn't really that Preston cared about him, it was just that he didn't hate Max enough to not be guilty for causing his death. And wow, he did not like where this line of thought was going, that's enough of that.

Preston, after a while, pulled away, only sniffling a bit now. Max cupped the back of his neck awkwardly, not knowing how to proceed.

Preston, luckily, already knew how to break the silence, saying, "Come on, we should get back to camp."

Max nodded in response, following the taller boy through the woods. Max tensed up, nothing to distract him from remembering why he was running in the first place.

Well, it was too late to escape now. Whatever Preston said, he'd just have to face it. What other choice did he have?

Max tried to distract himself from his swarming thoughts, tried to focus on the birds chirping in the trees, tried to focus on the canopy of pine needles above him, tried to focus on the earthy scent all around him, but to no avail. He couldn't get the possibilities out of his head.

His eyes darted around, trying harder to find something else, _anything_ else to focus on. Finally, his eyes landed on the subject of his thoughts, Preston himself.

Max blinked, focusing on the boy in front of him, how relaxed he seemed. How was Preston so calm right now? Well, he guessed that the theatre geek didn't really have the same thoughts in his head that Max did.

Man, he was lucky that Preston was ahead of him. Max was a mess right now, he was glad that the other boy couldn't see him.

Well, Preston was kinda a mess too, but that was more physical than emotional for him. Preston was still a wreck from running through the forest, while Max, on the other hand, was a mess from currently internalizing a mental breakdown.

But despite the scratches and dirt covering him, Preston still looked pretty put together, Max realized. He still walked confidently, even with his limp. His hair still looked well taken care of, despite the twigs tangled in it currently. He was still relaxed, despite the condition he was currently in.

It took Max a second to realize they were out of the woods.

He swallowed hard, not knowing what he should do. Preston turned to face him, a serious expression meeting his visibly anxious one.

Preston's eyes softened, and he sighed, putting a hand on Max's shoulder, causing the boy to tense up, eyes darting to meet Prestons.

"Max." Preston began quietly, "Thank you."

"What?"

"You helped me get away from Nurf, despite how risky it seemed! Like something straight out of a play! Which, well, now isn't really the time for that, but really, thank you!" Preston explained enthusiastically, beaming. Max felt his face flush with heat.

"Well, uh, that was really nothing…" He muttered, cupping the back of his neck with a hand and averting his eyes. "Nothing?! It was amazing! That was crazy, I can't believe you pulled it off!"

Max felt his face growing warmer, darting his eyes back to Preston. "Really?"

"Yeah! Of course!"

"Oh, well, uh, thanks." Max muttered, holding back a grin.

"And even after that, you didn't just abandon the egg, you raised it yourself! You could've just left it, but you didn't!" Preston continued.

"Ah, no, you're giving me more credit than I deserve." Max muttered. "No, it was really impressive! I still don't fully know how you did it to be honest."

"I-It wasn't that hard, everyone was distracted, and raising the platypus wasn't that hard when it was still an egg…"

"It's still impressive!"

"Gah, fine, okay, just move on…" Max murmured, trying desperately not to stutter. "Okay, okay…" Preston responded, chuckling.

After a moment, Preston cleared his throat, calming himself down. Max felt himself start to tense up again, knowing what would come next.

"Max, I can't take care of the baby. After today, I already know I won't be able to do it for long." Max fought against himself as he tried not to cry, glaring at the ground as he balled his hands up into fists. "But neither can you. Neither of us can do this alone."

Max's eyes widened, his green eyes shooting up to meet hazel. The other boy smiled, offering a hand to Max.

"And since neither of us can't do it alone, why don't we just do it together?"

Max felt himself to start to tear up, hand covering his mouth. This wasn't what he expected. This was much better. Doing it together. That sounded…. Perfect.

Slowly, he took Preston's hand. He smiled weakly at the taller boy, who looked shocked, as if he wasn't fully expecting Max to accept his offer.

"Yeah. I like the sound of that."

 _ **aaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHH THIS WAS HARD TO WRITE IT TOOK SO LONG I'M SO SORRY GUYS! It's here now at least, I hope you enjoy! I'm not so sure I like this yet, but I can't really wait to post it any longer, so hopefully it's okay. That was my first time writing a chase scene too. Was it obvious? Anyway, feel free to leave a review and tell me your thoughts, have a nice day!**_


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